Explanation:
This gorgeous visible-light
Hubble Space Telescope image shows a
young
cluster of massive stars at the center of the
30 Doradus Nebula.
Gas and dust clouds in 30 Doradus, also known as the
Tarantula Nebula,
have been sculpted into elongated shapes by
powerful winds and ultraviolet radiation from these
hot cluster stars.
Insets in the picture represent corresponding views from the
Hubble's infrared camera
where each square measures 15.5 light-years across.
Penetrating the obscuring dust, these infrared images themselves
offer detailed pictures of
star formation within
the nebula's collapsing clouds, revealing
the presence of newborn massive stars.
The 30 Doradus Nebula lies within a neighboring galaxy,
the Large Magellanic Cloud,
located a mere 170,000 light-years away.